Literary Birthday – 22 November – Marjane Satrapi

Marjane Satrapi was born on 22 November 1969 and died on 4 June 2026.

Marjane Satrapi Quotes

1. Life is too short to be lived badly.
2. You know, they say in France that translation is like a woman: she is either beautiful or faithful.
3. It’s fear that makes us lose our conscience. It’s also what transforms us into cowards.
4. I don’t think of myself as a rebel; I just say what I think.
5. When we’re afraid, we lose all sense of analysis and reflection. Our fear paralyses us. Besides, fear has always been the driving force behind all dictators’ repression.
6. All big changes of the world come from words.
7. I rushed to the living room to protect myself from I don’t know what, behind my best friend, a book.
8. Culture and education are the lethal weapons against all kinds of fundamentalism.
9. Images are a way of writing. When you have the talent to be able to write and to draw, it seems a shame to choose one. I think it’s better to do both.
10. The real war is not between the West and the East. The real war is between intelligent and stupid people.

Marjane Satrapi was an Iranian-born French graphic novelist, cartoonist, illustrator, film director, and children’s book author. She was the author of The Complete Persepolis. She also wrote the graphic novels Chicken with Plums; Woman, Life, Freedom; and the Marie Curie biopic Radioactive.

Source for image: Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marjane_Satrapi_Cannes_2008.jpg

by Amanda Patterson
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